2 Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-française (CRCCF), University of Ottawa3 Sisters of Charity of Ottawa

1763-1867

The Canadiens

L’Assomption, now Windsor, a colony of Francophone people born in Canada and called Canadiens, was the only surviving settlement of the French regime in Ontario. Some Francophone colonists partnered with the military, commercial and political elites of Toronto. In the Great Lakes region, Canadian commercial entrepreneurs became skilled intermediaries between Aboriginal peoples and the British.

Following the establishment of Upper Canada in 1791, centres for agriculture and lumber trade began to develop in Penetanguishene, L’Original and La Passe, where voyageurs had earlier assembled to await employment with fur trading expeditions. Waves of loyalists and former British soldiers founded communities in eastern, central and southern Ontario. From 1826, the construction of the Rideau Canal, in Bytown Village – now Ottawa – attracted workers from among French-speaking Canadiens and the Irish.

As early as 1841, the first Bishop of Toronto, Monsignor de Charbonnel, negotiated agreements that created separate schools. These agreements would be confirmed nearly two decades later by the Scott Act. Monsignor Guigues, First Bishop of Bytown, revitalized missions in the Northwest and encouraged colonization in eastern Ontario. Dioceses supported the establishment of parishes, schools and colleges, which would later become universities. Religious communities made up of men and women arriving from Europe and from Lower Canada directed the religious, educational, social and health services.

After 1850, major initiatives of francophone citizens appeared, such as the foundation of the French-Canadian Institution in Ottawa, the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, and the first Franco- Ontarian newspaper, Le Progrès d’Ottawa. Craftsmen created the Union St-Joseph, later called the Union du Canada, the first Francophone mutual insurance company in Ontario.